We'll probably destroy it after we get it: Trump redraws red line on Iran's nukes

The US and Iran stuck on Thursday to directly opposing stances over Tehran's uranium stockpile and controls on the Strait of Hormuz, providing little fodder for hope in Pakistani-led efforts to end the conflict.

President Donald Trump said the US will eventually recover Iran's stockpile of highly enriched uranium-which Washington believes is destined for a nuclear weapon though Tehran says is intended purely for peaceful purposes.

"We will get it. We don't need it, we don't want it. We'll probably destroy it after we get it, but we're not going to let them have it," Trump told reporters at the White House.


Supreme Leader Ayatollah Mojtaba Khamenei has, however, issued a directive that the uranium should not be sent abroad, two senior Iranian sources told Reuters before Trump's comments.

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Trump also railed against Tehran's intentions to charge fees for use of the Strait of Hormuz off its coast, where a fifth of the world's oil and natural gas passed through before the war.

"We want it open, we want it free. We don't want tolls," he said. "It's an international waterway."

Earlier in the day, Iran said the latest proposal from the US has partly bridged the gap between the warring sides, as they seek to turn a fragile truce into a peace deal.

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Tehran is in the process of responding to a text submitted by the US, which "has narrowed the gaps to some extent," the semi-official Iranian Students' News Agency reported on Thursday, without saying where it got the information. "Further narrowing requires an end to the temptation for war on Washington's part."

The exchange of messages is based on Iran's 14-point text from several weeks ago, the Iranian foreign ministry said separately.

Iran gave no indication of when it would formally answer the US. The Iranian foreign ministry reiterated it wants a commitment that fighting will end "on all fronts, including Lebanon." It also called for the unfreezing of sanctioned assets.